With the heavy rumors of Manny Ramirez being traded to the division rival Florida Marlins, and with the Mets flying under the radar in search of a corner outfield and a relief pitcher, the Phillies may find themselves having made only one move — Joe Blanton — when August 1 rolls around. That’s fine, even if the Mets and Marlins make a move.

Before you fetch the strait jacket for me, let me explain why Pat Gillick has done some good work in August and beyond.

Ryan Franklin, August 7, 2006: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies with cash to the Cincinnati Reds for a player to be named later. The Cincinnati Reds sent Zac Stott to the Philadelphia Phillies to complete the trade.

Jamie Moyer, August 19, 2006: Traded by the Seattle Mariners to the Philadelphia Phillies for Andrew Barb and Andy Baldwin.

Jose Hernandez, August 22, 2006: Purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Jeff Conine, August 27, 2006: raded by the Baltimore Orioles to the Philadelphia Phillies Angel Chavez.

Randall Simon, September 1, 2006: Purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Texas Rangers.

Franklin wasn’t anything special, and the Phillies got a warm body from the Cardinals for his services. Stott hasn’t been that bad for the Phillies in Clearwater, posting a 3.85 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 2.62 BB/9, and 5.31 K/9.

The Moyer acquisition was brilliant, and it’s still paying dividends as we speak, literally (as of this writing, he’s gone 6 innings and given up 3 runs to the Nationals — another quality start). He’s no Johan Santana, Dan Haren, or C.C. Sabathia, but he’s given the Phillies exactly what they needed in the middle of their rotation.

Since joining the Phillies, Moyer has averaged six innings per start each season and has been above-average for the most part. In eight starts in ’06, he put up a 116 ERA+, a 92 ERA+ in 33 starts last season, and excluding tonight’s start, he has a 119 ERA+ in 21 starts this season. Additionally, Moyer has been relatively cheap, earning $6 million last season and $3.5 million this season.

Andrew Baldwin has been terrible in AAA Tacoma and Andrew Barb hasn’t thrown a pitch this season at any level. I have no idea what happened to him but he presumably got injured or quit. Neither of the two were worth keeping around the Phillies got two and a half seasons of productive pitching out of Moyer.

When Gillick leaves, we may look back on his tenure and point to Moyer as his greatest acquisition.

Jose Hernandez was unproductive but he was only given 32 at-bats. Ditto Randall Simon, who was given only 21 at-bats.

Conine was given 100 at-bats and put up an 80 OPS+ which consisted of a .327 OBP/.390 SLG. Too many at-bats, but he was about as productive as Pedro Feliz has been this season (Conine played in the outfield, though).

Russell Branyan, August 9, 2007: Purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Cleveland Indians.

Russell Branyan, August 31, 2007: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the St. Louis Cardinals for PTBNL.

Pete LaForest, September 4, 2007: Selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies from the San Diego Padres.

Branyan was given nine at-bats in a Phillies uniform but one of them left an indelible mark on the remarkable 2007 season. On August 14 in Washington, the Phillies were shut down by Nationals starter Shawn Hill and Luis Ayala. Hill allowed only one hit and gave up only one walk and struck out seven. Jon Rauch came in to pitch the eighth for the Nationals, and it appeared that the game was destined to end up in the loss column for the Phillies.

With one out, Jayson Werth reached on an error, and Carlos Ruiz drove him in with a single to make it 2-1. Branyan pinch-hit for Antonio Alfonseca, and on the second pitch from Rauch, he hit a mammoth home run to right field to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead and eventually a 3-2 win.

Branyan hit another home run on the 19th against the Pirates in Pittsburgh, and that pretty much sums up his stint with the Phillies. Nine at-bats, two homers, five RBI.

Gillick traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later (I still have no clue who the PTBNL was), and Branyan was unproductive the rest of the way.

LaForest was very unproductive (hard to imagine, but his OPS+ was in the negatives at -13), but was only given 11 at-bats.

Of the players Gillick acquired past the July 31 trading deadline, two were very productive and the rest, while unproductive, weren’t given enough at-bats to really make a dent.

Even if the Phillies don’t get Manny Ramirez or Brian Fuentes, there are still moves to be made and we can count on Gillick, even if his time in Philly is running out.

Below, I will list the lines for starts made against the Phillies by a particular starting pitcher, see if you can name him.

This pitcher has made a total of eight starts against the Phillies in his career. Seven of them have been quality starts. He’s gone more than 18 innings against the Phils without surrendering a home run and has an ERA of 2.30 and a WHIP of 1.14.

It’s Tim Redding. Tim freakin’ Redding. And he’s scheduled to face Jamie Moyer tonight in about an hour and ten minutes. Never have I wanted to intentionally use the Gambler’s Fallacy more in my life. Come on, Redding is due for a clunker, right? Phils are going to score, like, eight runs off of him tonight. Two Ryan Howard grand slams: one hits the right field foul pole, the other hits the left field foul pole. Book it.

The Phillies are currently -135 favorites and the Nationals are +125 underdogs. Is Vegas aware that Cy Redding is pitching?